July and August Have Been and Gone

 I was doing so well and here I am two months behind again!

 

July began with a road trip to Ipswich for my uncle’s 90th birthday. Of course, the aircon in my brother’s car had broken and this was right in one of the seemingly endless heatwaves we had this summer so cold drinks were very welcome when we arrived. 

Heat aside it was a lovely to share afternoon tea with family and friends and particularly to see all the amazing photos my cousins had collated from my uncle’s life and career and hear the wonderful endorsement from AMCA for all his groundbreaking work in the world of (motorbike) scrambling. 

I had a couple of days off work so went back to my Mum’s house to stay with her as we had a mission to try and find her some new sofas.

We spent the morning trawling furniture warehouses finally narrowing it down between two in the final shop we went too. We spent about twenty minutes sitting on each of them and Mum made her choice, mission accomplished.  

The next day we had a lazy breakfast before heading to Thame for a mooch around the market and charity shops.

 

Next up was my birthday and as our favourite pub was having some sort of mini festival headlined by 80's band D-Ream, which was absolutely not either of our cups of tea, we decided to head over to Oxford. 

It was quite short notice, but I messaged our friends to see if anyone was free and luckily for me they all were.

We decided to go out in Jericho, meeting at the Jericho Tavern first. By the time Himself and I got there Soo, Gav and Dan had managed to nab a great table in the shade outside so we just ended up staying there all evening. 

It was such a great evening and so lovely to catch up with everyone. I didn’t go too mad because I knew I had to be up early the next day to head back out into Oxford. 

I was meant to be meeting Alex and Charlotte but, in the end, Alex cancelled, so Charlotte and I decided to just meet anyway. There was an exhibition on at the Oxford Museum marking the anniversary of BBC Radio One’s Sound City which was a festival that ran during the 90’s and took place in Oxford in 1997.

Basically all the music venues large and small got taken over for various gigs and DJ sets. Charlotte is a huge Radiohead fan and travelled from London to see them in their huge outdoor closing show, so she was very keen to see the exhibition. 

I certainly remember it all happening as I was still very into the local music scene at the time, though I didn’t go to the big stuff as bands like Radiohead, Supergrass and Ride were not my thing. I do remember going to see some of the smaller metal bands that got involved.

The fact the Museum of Oxford is tiny means the exhibition was pretty small, but it was very well curated. It was such a nostalgia trip to see old flyers for venues long gone and copies of some of the local music papers I used to write for, as well as reading memories from locals about the vibrant music scene there was in the city once upon a time. 

I was surprised that there was little to no mention of the rock, metal and goth scene that I was part of, the focus was really on the indie, pop and reggae, I know they were bigger scenes with more famous bands but they weren’t all there was. I certainly added some venues I used to frequent to their interactive map of the city, as well as many of my memories.

As we were there, we browsed the rest of the museum before having a leisurely lunch and a good catch up.

 

The following weekend I finally agreed to do a long walk to Wantage that Himself had been keen to take me on since finding that it was possible to walk there avoiding the main roads. 

It was a stunning walk though the countryside was showing distressing signs of the long drought our region had been deep in. Many of my pictures looked like I was in the plains and prairies and not the Oxfordshire countryside!

It has been a while since I have done such a long walk, and I was knackered by the time we arrived. I think with hindsight I could have done with a proper stop midway through and maybe a snack of some sort rather than just gulping some water and plugging on. 

We saw deer, buzzards, hares, red kites and a solitary raven as well as a very rowdy wedding party in a huge marquee on the other side of the river to us. I was certainly ready to collapse in a pub garden with a delicious ice-cold pint of cider or three before catching the bus home.

 

The weekend of the 25th was my Mum’s birthday so we booked Sunday lunch for us all in our favourite pub, taking a slow meander along the old railway line to get there. The food was delicious and thankfully the day was not too hot. The last thing you feel like doing on a baking hot day is eat a full Sunday roast! 

The month ended with a lovely long lunch with my friends Simon, Carole and Liz at Liz’s house. We were having such a good time it was a shock to find it was actually almost 7pm!

 

August started with a trip to Woodstock with Soo, the plan being to visit the Lee Miller exhibit at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum which is based in the grounds of the Woodstock Museum . We met in the morning at the train station in Oxford, then caught the bus to Woodstock hoping to get there before it was too baking hot. Of course, neither of us had checked to see if the Museum might be open on a Monday, it wasn’t, so that was an epic fail!

We had a mooch around Woodstock to find many of the shops were also closed on a Monday, stopped in a café for lunch then caught a bus back to Oxford. The thermometer had reached the mid-thirties by that point, so it was just too hot for being anywhere other than inside for two non-sunworshippers like us. 

We rescheduled and headed back to Woodstock on Friday the 14th as this was a day the museum was definitely open. The exhibition on Lee Miller was small but so interesting as it also covered female war correspondents in general, particularly during WW2 and the Vietnam War. 

We also had a look around the rest of the museum as we were there. It was fascinating but sobering, I had no idea for example that it was an Oxfordshire battalion that liberated some of the concentration camps, I was moved to tears by some of the exhibits and information. I have to say I was so impressed by the museum overall in terms of how accessible they had made the information particularly for children.  

The Woodstock Museum has a very pretty garden and a lovely café where we headed for some lunch. We managed to snag a table outside in the shade and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. We may have had a sweet treat too...

Whilst we didn’t go into the main museum, they did have a small free exhibition on local folklore which we took a look at too.  

 

My second cousin Lisa who’s wedding I went to in April was having a mini honeymoon in the UK during August. She and her husband were visiting my Mum for a few days so Himself and I went over for Sunday lunch to see them both. I also managed to catch up with them both round at my brother’s house before they headed off for a few days in London. I also met an old colleague from my library days for lunch and was rather shocked to find it had been a year since we last met, where does the time go??

 

For the Friday before the August bank holiday Mum and I had our annual trip to the craft fair at Stonor Park planned. This year we had a spare ticket which we offered to Soo, luckily, she was free so joined me at Mum’s house on the Thursday evening. 

After a lovely tea we cracked open a second bottle of prosecco and were at Mother’s beck and call in a test run of decorating the floral arch Mum was creating for Nephew Number One’s wedding in September. 

Once we had managed to get it how she envisioned it we were allowed to go to bed! 

We had a lovely day browsing crafts and I managed to buy a couple of gifts for other people and treat myself. We called in for a late lunch of freshly made pizza at The Half Moon in Cuxham. We were the only people there and we ended up having a long chat with the lovely lady who made our delicious lunch.

 

This is my quick gallop through July and August I will try and get September, which was an epic month, done before the end of the year!      

June in all her Glory.

 I’m on a roll so here is June!

 The month started with a visit to the annual scarecrow walk in the next village to where we live. This year’s theme was meant to be historical figures you admire and frankly it was the maddest and most sinister collection I have seen yet!

There were several Florence Nightingales which I swear were more for the bloody corpses accompanying her than for Florence herself. 

The first weekend in June we went to Canterbury with Soo and Gav for a long weekend. Initially Soo had asked for some tips on where to go and what to do whilst in Canterbury as she had never visited before and fancied a trip there. Himself decided it would be easier to show her so said let us know when you are planning to go and I’ll travel down too. This then developed into us deciding to book somewhere for us all to share.

We did have some drama when the initial place we found turned out to be a scam. Soo had found it on one website whilst I had found the exact same place but cheaper on Booking.com, that listing also came with no money due to be paid until a few weeks before we were due to stay. No flags there yet because it’s not unusual for holiday lets to be on more than one site. 

Soo duly booked it via Booking.com and immediately got an email from some woman at a differently named company asking for the immediate full payment of the fees but via bank transfer and not the Booking.com platform. Soo queried this because the listing had been clear no fees were due yet and also paying bank transfer would not only take you away from the site but also mean no protection if things go wrong.

 

First big red flag. 

This went too and fro a bit with the woman getting more and more insistent and very rude. Soo took screen shots of everything and sent it to Booking.com to query it with them. They were monumentally unhelpful, saying it was up to her whether she wanted to pay away from their platform or not, and that it was ‘probably ok.‘ 

In the meantime Soo had googled the management company on the bank details the woman had shared and found they had a whole tranch of negative reviews for ripping people off with accommodation bookings!

 She therefore very prudently cancelled our booking and sent all of that to Booking.com who said they would investigate, but never got back to her and on last checking the listing as still live!?! 

It also made us realise why there were only nine reviews for an apparently incredible city centre apartment that had been on the website for a couple years. Clearly, they had been getting people to do a bank transfer off platform, then cancelled the booking on the platform meaning people were unable to leave a negative review when they found themselves scammed.

Interestingly there was an episode of the Scam Secrets Podcast all about holiday/accommodation platform cons that aired shortly after we got back. Booking.com did not come out of it well at all! Particularly for their lack of policing of their platform and lack of support when people were scammed. It's certainly made me more cautious about using the site.

 

Thankfully, all of this happened in plenty of time for us to find an alternative and whilst slightly more expensive we found a fab little two bed, two-bathroom coach house a 10-minute walk from the train station.

 

We travelled by train, leaving from our house, and everything went smoothly meaning we arrived on a very wet Saturday afternoon, settled in and headed straight out into the city centre. 

It turns out it was Pride in Canterbury that day which was such a shame because the weather was awful. We mooched all around the city centre until we decided we were just too cold and wet so decamped to a pub. 

From there we ambled about deciding where to eat ending up in a little bar bistro before trying to find somewhere for another drink that wasn’t absolutely packed and or too noisy. After a drink we headed to the supermarket to get some bits for our breakfasts, plus beer and wine for the evenings. We were all very grateful to get back into the dry, put the heating on for an hour and open a drink. 

 

The next morning Soo and I were up fairly early; we chatted over a cup of tea before getting dressed and heading out to follow a tantalizing footpath alongside the river Soo had spotted the day before.  

We figured we would be about an hour but ended up going further than we planned and getting a little bit lost. 

The boys were both up when we finally got back and after a good breakfast of boiled eggs, toast and fruit we set out to the second train station in the city, Canterbury East. Our route there took us along the city walls where they had planted swathes of wildflowers which were in full bloom.

The plan for the day was something I have wanted to do ever since I read about it a couple of years ago.  

Long term readers will know I adore elephants, and as soon as I read about a circular walk that takes in the elephant enclosure at Howletts Zoo, I have wanted to do it. 

The plan was to catch the train over to Bekesbourne take the route to see the elephants then walk back which would be about 10 miles. Apart from one rather hairy but thankfully short bit where we had to walk along a busy road it was a gorgeous walk taking in some beautiful Kentish countryside. 

When they said the public footpath went right by the elephant enclosure we had none of us pictured just how close it all was. I was absolutely enchanted, no other words needed.

None of us spotted the lions in the background at the time!

There were also rhinos.

We eventually tore ourselves away and walked on stopping at a recommended pub for a well-earned beer or two. We ended up catching the train back because we had a dinner booking at a great looking pub and restaurant Soo and I had spotted in the morning called The Parrot. It was pretty quiet given it was a Sunday evening, but the food was absolutely delicious. Replete, we took a gentle amble through some pretty streets back to the house.

The next morning again Soo and I were up early and chatted over a cuppa. The weather had turned again, and it was wet and windy once more. 

Undeterred we kept to our original plan to catch the train from Canterbury West to Margate and walk the coastal path to Broadstairs where Himself had booked a table for dinner in our favourite Italian.

It was a lovely walk despite the weather and we took a break from the elements to have a sandwich and hot drink at The Captain Digby a pub you pass enroute. 

First port of call once we had got to Broadstairs was Morelli’s ice cream parlour as Gav is as fond of an ice cream as I am. We managed to get there about 20 minutes before it closed as did a surprising number of other people. They did a last minute flurry of orders for ice creams before booting us all out a shutting up for the evening. 

The rain had stopped so we took the opportunity to ramble all over Broadstairs up and down the steep streets and onto the beach to build up an appetite for our dinner. Posillipo is a little family run restaurant with a mix of traditional Italian dishes and daily specials. As ever it was fully booked even though it was a Monday evening, which was lovely to see given these tough times for the hospitality industry. The fish eaters amongst us were horrified to see two of the people at the table next to us order the sea bream special then only eat half of it, what a dreadful waste. 

We waddled up the hill to the station and caught the train back to Canterbury, thankfully in the sunshine, calling in for a last beer at Himself’s favourite Canterbury pub The Lady Luck.

The next morning our lovely break had sadly come to an end all too soon. We packed and were just leaving when the cleaner arrived, she was actually super early so it was lucky we were up and ready! We had a chat with her about our stay before heading for breakfast at The Goods Shed which is the old station yard and now holds a farmer’s market, food hall and restaurant. We had a look round before settling down for a delicious breakfast. It was a step from there to the platform and our train home. We all agreed it would be lovely to visit again because we had really only scratched the surface when it came to things to do.    

 

Soo and I got together two days later to head to the theatre to see The Marquise by Noel Coward at the Oxford Playhouse.

 The original play was set in 18th Century France, but this version had been updated to France in the 1930’s. 

We met up at Cote for their pre-theatre menu before heading to the theatre. It was a fun production, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Himself was away that weekend so I was just pottering about at home doing chores. I logged into Facebook and a memory came up that two years ago I had gone out for a walk and spotted some bee orchids. Last year around the same time I tried to take Himself out and show him but even though I hunted and hunted I couldn’t find them. I had had enough of housework, hence me scrolling on facepage. So I decided then and there to head out with my camera and see if I could find them again, and would you believe it I did!

It took a little bit of hunting, but I was so happy to find them, there was a guy out jogging who I think was very perplexed about what I was doing but didn’t ask, so British.   

 

I also took myself out for a summer solstice on the evening of the 21st and again saw a flock of long tailed tits flitting through the trees which was just magical, they are one of my favourite birds even though they are mainly pink!

 The weather by this point was ramping up to one of the seemingly endless heatwaves we have been having this year. I must say as a pale, pale, fair-haired person I hate the heat and have mostly been hiding inside, but I couldn’t on Monday 22nd because my friend Alison and I had tickets for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait.

As soon as I read about it, I sent Alison a message to say are you going and would you like company? She replied instantly yes and yes. We settled on a date, and she booked the tickets, travelling up separately and meeting outside the main entrance of the gallery.

Any long-time readers will know of my love of 19303-1950s Hollywood and my fascination with Marilyn. I took myself off to the exhibition at the American Museum in Bath back in 2011 and also the smaller one in London the same year. 

It was lovely to go to such a fantastic exhibition with an equally big fan. The exhibition features a hundred pictures of Marilyn starting from shots as an unknown teenager to the height of her career. 

The ranged from the extremely well known and iconic, to behind scenes or ones she had dismissed (she cannily had control over her image from very early in her career and vetoed many pictures scoring through the negatives) to fan photos. 

There were many I had never seen before as well as old favourites that it was just wonderful to see outside of the covers of books. Definitely one of my top exhibitions in recent years.    

 

Alison and I worked well as exhibition buddies. We wandered around at our own pace, meeting and separating, going back to show each other particular pictures, and sharing memories. Once we had gazed our fill and spent some pennies in the pop-up shop, the accompanying book was a must for both of us, we decided to find some lunch. 

The heat had properly ramped up whilst we were inside the gallery and was now in the low 30s, so we didn’t venture too far, ending up having the small plates menu at Bella Pasta. After a lovely long leisurely lunch we separated, and I headed back to Paddington in the hope of being able to jump on a train home before the restrictions on my off peak ticket came in. Sadly, I was thwarted by the weather which as ever had wreaked havoc on the rail network and instead got to stand in the baking heat that is the main concourse (Victorian building with a glass roof) for the best part of two hours before I could finally pile onto a train with many many other people. Thankfully, the ticket restrictions had gone out of the window. The one downside was I had forgone a visit to Buns From Home as I was worried I would miss my train, if only I had known!    

    

The month ended with me dragging himself out to see the full moon rise on the 28th, the strawberry moon. It was a gorgeous evening and we had a lovely walk before taking a seat at a great vantage point I have found and watching the moon slowly appearing from behind a hill.

As said on previous posts I know there were purchases but I can't really remember what and when. I might have to do an end of year round up!

July to follow soon....

Quickly Followed by May.

 May began with a lovely long walk to enjoy what seemed to be a crazy abundance of buttercups this spring, as well as some more lambs.

It is also a month of many birthdays including Himself’s. I took him out for dinner at our favourite pub on the night before.

We took a lovely long walk on the day itself, calling in on The Red Lion in Blewbury where he managed to take the picture for what has become his birthday tradition for over ten years now. A picture of him out celebrating a birthday drink with ‘all of his friends’ (i.e. an empty pub!)

It started when we happened to be out for the day on his birthday and called into a pub for a drink. It was early afternoon on a weekday, so after any lunchtime rush and the pub was empty apart from us.

                                                                   The first ever image

He’s been doing a short every year since and I’m not going to lie they do sometimes take some staging.

This year for example was a frantic quick snap as a couple of families left the beer garden and just before some other people walked into shot and sat down. I was also standing pressed into a hedge clutching my pint so I was out of shot! 

Goodness knows what people thought we were doing.

 

May also started with a pretty intense property visit. The woman arrived with what I assumed was a pair of latex gloves in her hand, which seemed a bit judgemental, but I guess not every property is clean.

They actually turned out to be those elasticated shoe coveralls and she did also don gloves!

I come to the conclusion she was a frustrated CSI because not only did she kit herself out like one, she also walked around the property taking pictures of every room from every angle, whilst talking into her phone!?! 

I have to confess I was not, and am still not, happy with this process. In all the 20 plus years of renting I have never had anyone taking pictures of my belongings in what is essentially my home!

I did contact our rental agency afterwards to ask exactly what happens with the photos and who gets to see them. Apparently, they are to ‘assess the condition of the property’ and are kept on file for a time with a limited amount of people seeing them. Hmm....    

 

I did an amazing queer history walking tour of Oxford through work the next day, it was absolutely fascinating, and the guide was super engaging and entertaining. Having done various walking tours of the city now it ranks up there with the best of them.  

 

The following Friday I had a half day to meet my friends Carole, Liz and Simon for lunch. We went to a pub we like where they serve yummy food and they allocated us ‘our ‘ table on arrival, which considering we only go every 6-8 weeks shows you how much of an impression we must make (oh dear!) 

The pub was fairly quiet when we arrived, but busy by the time we left. The landlady made a point of coming over to say it had been lovely to hear all our laughter filling that corner of the room and that it had been a joy to serve us. I must admit we do tend to get a bit lively when we do get together!

 

The next weekend was another bank holiday and thankfully I was working from home on the Friday, so no commute when I finished. 

There is an ice cram van that stops right outside our house in this new street we live in. As it was a hot sunny day I decided to start the weekend early and nipped out when I heard it arrive. I got served a 99 literally as big as my head, this is going to prove dangerous to my waistline….   

 

As it was a bank holiday and the weather was lovely, we decided to take ourselves off to the seaside!

We realised we hadn’t been to Weston-Super-Mare for a very long time and it is somewhere you can get to directly from our train station, so that is where we went. 

Surprisingly there was a thick sea fog when we arrived even though the morning was already warm. We walked along the seafront and by the time we reached the far end the fog was clearing and it was getting super hot and very busy. We decided to keep on walking, going past where the old pier is being restored.

We saw signs for the coastal path leading to Sand Bay so followed those even though neither of us had the right footwear for hiking. Thankfully the terrain was hilly but easy going, and also blissfully it was mostly shady woodland which was much cooler.

Sand Bay was much more chilled with sand dues and a huge expanse of beach without all the shops and food stands. 

We had a lovely walk there before turning round and heading back the way we came.  

By the time we got back to Weston it was absolutely packed, you could barely see an inch of free sand and all the pubs on the seafront were blaring out music or karaoke. 

It was just too much. Too much noise and sweating humanity I hated it so we swerved away into the town centre in search of a drink and some quiet, but it has become sadly rundown like so many of our once grand seaside towns.

We ended up back on the seafront managing to snag a table inside Brunello Lounge (a UK wide chain that are all called ‘something’ Lounge.) We had a lovely long cold drink or two, cider in my case, before braving the seafront again. 

We had thought about playing the pirate crazy golf, but as it was late afternoon by this point, we decided to head home instead. 

Not sure I will be hurrying back to Weston any time soon, it was not for me. I loved all the amazing street art though and also bought a very cute new design Lifeboat Association bear to go with my others; I now have 4 different ones. 

They are a charity that are very close to both our hearts, and I do love a teddy bear so it was a no brainer.   

 

The month ended with a day of to go to the In Bloom – How Plants Changed Our World exhibition at The Ashmolean Museum with Charlotte.

The blurb for the exhibition says ‘Beyond their beauty, many have hidden histories – tales of exploration, obsession, and knowledge. This major new exhibition takes visitors on a journey from Oxford to the farthest corners of the world and back, uncovering the global stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms – from roses and tulips to camellias and peonies. Featuring over 100 artworks and objects, including drawings, paintings, rare prints, and ceramics, In Bloom explores our changing relationship with the natural world. From the fascinating stories of curiosity and ingenuity of early plant explorers to the networks that shaped global trade, this exhibition reveals how the pursuit of exotic plants transformed landscapes, economies, and cultures, leaving a legacy that still shapes our world today.’

 

The entrance to the museum has this gorgeous decorative arch outside. The partner of one of my colleagues works there and said they had a load of complaints about the plastic flowers outside and how environmentally unfriendly it was, shame on the museum for using them etc etc. They aren’t plastic flowers and they actually have a sign to say they are not. If only people would read…

 

The exhibition itself is fairly small but very interesting. Our enjoyment was slightly marred by a man who was there with his parents and a toddler, who was of course bored stiff after about 5 minutes and then became noisy and very disruptive despite the father and one of the gallery staff trying to distract them. Instead of taking the child out and maybe waiting in the play area downstairs whilst his parents finished the exhibition at their own pace, he insisted they all stayed together, eventually the child became so disruptive they had no choice but to leave, not before they had thoroughly disturbed everyone else to the point, I found it hard to properly concentrate on the rest of the exhibition. 

I did love these flowers that had been made out of decomissioned old bank notes. 

After a browse round the shop we took ourselves off to lunch in Georgina’s the little Greek café in the indoor market, before having a browse round some shops and a cup of tea upstairs at John Lewis.

It was also my brother’s birthday so in the evening I met with the family at a little pizza place in town to celebrate with pizza and wine. I had already had his present delivered to his house, a selection of different pork pies with a special chutney and vintage cheese to go with them. He is a big fan of a pork pie.

So that was May. As with April I know for a fact I bought things but it's too long ago for me to remember exactly what. Erstwilder brooches for sure to add to my ever expanding collection and maybe a frock or two...

I've started to type up June which was epic and migth end up being two posts. I'm determined to try and catch up with myself and this year.

This crazy heat has been too much for me but I did find my fashion imitating life.